Incitement
Incitement
Incitement
Volume 14 No. 2
A publication of ADAPT
Winter 1998

[Headline] APT Harvests Victories for REAL CHOICE
by Stephanie Thomas
What do you get when you mix hundreds of ADAPT activists, the nation's capitol, an election time, big time lobby groups, a lawsuit, and a bunch of unfulfilled promises? Yokes, look out whatever it is... And that's just what happened when the largest number of ADAFF activists yet rolled into Washington DC on Halloween ready for answers, tired of excuses.

Monday morning was the eve of the national election. ADAPT moved to confront both political parties which had given Real Choice, MiCASA and community-based attendant services a lot of lip service but remained comfortable with the fact that over 2 million Americans are locked away in nursing homes and other institutions, cause they don't have any real choice.

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[Image caption] Photo by Susan Briggs

The plan was simple, Mt both parties' headquarters and get the person in charge to negotiate on our demands. Executing it was not quite so simple. Yet with the crackerjack leadership of the day and color leaders, our crew of over 500 people most in wheel chairs -- threaded they way through the streets of suburban Virginia; up and down numerous tiny elevators and along the blue, green, yellow and red DC Metro subway lines; over brick covered downtown streets; past power-player watering holes and national monuments and onto the two targets.

Because of the nature of this action and our numbers, we split into two groups. Half our people packed the lobby of the National Republican Party Headquarters and flooded out onto the street in front of the building. Half surrounded the National Democratic Headquarters and filled Ivy Street to boot, declaring these buildings nursing homes for the day. The Democrats' and Republicans' brilliant response? Play possum.

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ADAPT / Incitement
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Incitement is produced from the offices of Topeka Independent Living Re-source Center (TILRC). Articles, letters, compositions, displays and photos are encouraged. Please contact Tessa Goupil for deadlines for submission of materials. The Editor reserves the right to edit or omit any material that is submitted. For more information, contact Tessa Goupil at TILRC or Stephanie Thomas at ADAPT.

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[article continues] Both parties wanted us to believe that on the eve of a national election, their leader-ship had wandered off and could not be tracked down. Our leadership teams were a bit more on the ball than that. We sent in our demands that their leadership meet with us, that they support MiCASA, that they develop a position paper on the institutional bias of our long term care system and making home and community based services the first priority, and that they include Real Choice and attendant services in their national platform.

Their first response was to stonewall. However, we were ready for that. ADAPT folks had come from all across the nation, from Idaho and Washington, from Utah and Colorado, from Tennessee and Georgia, from New Hampshire and Connecticut. People had taken off from work, had scraped together savings from paltry SSI checks, they had slipped away from nursing homes, come on oxygen tanks and duck-taped together wheel-chairs. ADAPT could not be more serious about Freeing Our People, and no bureaucrat or politico in a huff over a few hours inconvenience was going to sway us. As they say back home, that dog won't hunt.

The day wore on and the city cops over at the Republican headquarters grew antsy. One drove his motorcycle into someone's wheelchair. The valiant ADAPT volunteer who had gone for food was chased around the neighborhood dozens of times, given 3 tickets and, at one point, forcefully boarded and threatened.

The Republicans had scheduled a press conference which they apparently forgot to cancel. So at the appointed hour the media showed up to find the building surrounded by activists chanting "Our homes, not nursing homes!" and they got the real story!

It seems the way to the politicos' heads (never mind their hearts) is through their stomachs because it was the spill over of the action into their supper clubs next door that finally got the negotiations on track. At the Democratic Club patrons and some staff were so eager to wine and dine and pretend nothing was happening, they literally crawled over folks in wheelchairs. But ADAPTers held strong and in the end it paid off.

The leadership teams in both places were able to negotiate meetings with the leadership of both parties at which our representatives will continue to push the issues, until justice is done. "I have been authorized to commit to a meeting with the ADAPT leadership and Chairman Nicholson" the Republican letter read, and in addition to agreeing to discuss the issues, position papers and addressing the full convention it committed that "ADAPT will...address the Platform Committee of the Republican National Convention." In the Democrats' letter they also agreed to meet to discuss the issues, position papers and addressing their convention and in addition stated "the DNC will work to develop, promote and pass legislation in the 106th Congress that will allow people with disabilities ...to choose and control where and how long-term services and supports are delivered."

[image] clip art of the donkey and elephant representing the two political parties alongside the ADAPT symbol of a person in a wheelchair breaking the chains that had bound their hands
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[Image caption] Photo by Carolyn Long

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[Image caption] Photo by Carolyn Long

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[Image caption] photo by Bill Shumaker

[text continues] Day two found ADAPT converging on the Department of Health and Human Services, home of Health Care Finance Administration, HCFA (which runs Medicaid) and HHS Secretary Donna Shalala. In single file we marched to the building which covers its own city block, and surrounded the place till all the entrances and exits were blocked. This was a place where many promises are made but few kept. Those inside speak out of both sides of their faces, as we have seen on so many occasions, not the least of which being the MiCASA hearing last spring. As recently as the week before, HCFA administrator Sally Richardson had been back peddling on her letter to the states (printed in the last issue of Incitement) telling a gather-ing of the State Medicaid Directors that doing a waiver would count as their effort toward providing services in the most integrated setting. ADAPT was here to say: "Stop selling short our civil right to integration." This time the General Services police were called in to "keep the peace." But they were not very well trained it seemed, as there were scuffles at every door they tried to keep open. Though folks trickled in and out here and there, there could be no doubt those inside were well aware of our presence, and working hard at pretending they did not care. As the close of business day drew nearer their level of caring grew, as they became increasingly aware that it was not just the doors that were blocked, the parking garage was too. Tussles took place at various doors at different times as the guards tried to return things to business as usual. But ADAPT made sure business as usual was not going to happen till HHS stopped their double talk Folks were dragged from their chairs but others just filled in when gaps appeared, so that eventually the police had to go inside and find someone in authority who could negotiate with us. This person turned out to be Assistant Secretary of Management and Budget John Callahan who tried to have us just gather up on a corner to wait while he "wrote a letter which would take about an hour..." but the leadership team corrected the misconception that we would leave the build-ing without a written commitment to a meet-ing with the Secretary herself. Once he got that straight it was remarkable how quickly Callahan was able to take our leadership upstairs, negotiate an agreement, put it in writing and come back downstairs and read it to the crowd waiting below: 'The Secretary of HI-IS and top administrative officials agree to meet with ... ADAPT ... to develop a transition plan that will result in each and every state complying with the most integrated setting requirements of the ADA. The meeting agenda will include the Secretary's assurance that she will work with ADAPT so that the FY 2000 Budget includes sufficient funds to carry out the aforementioned objective."

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[image captions] Photos by Carolyn Long

We had spent two days hammering on our main issue, attendant services and real choice. The last day we had one other item of business to deal with lifts on buses. The Department of Transportation had published strong regulations, but the bus operators could not leave well enough alone. The lobby group for over the road buses, the American Bus Association (ABA) acting as Greyhound's lackey, had filed suit in federal court roughly one week after the regulations were out. Their goal: stop the mandate for lifts on all new buses. This kind of action is what had birthed ADAPT in the first place, when APIA (American Public Transit Assoc.) had filed and won a suit against lifts on city buses. There was no way we could let this slide.

The ABA building is an old Greyhound terminal for the capital city. Marble pillars and floors with inlaid Greyhound tile, paintings of buses across America, and even a small museum type display of the history of Greyhound and the building decorated the art deco space. The terminal had been moved, but ties dearly remained strong.

A team of ADAPT negotiators plus about 30 back up people went up the ABA offices, the rest of us remained below to keep the heat on. Once again those in charge tried the old "ignore it and maybe it will go away" with a predictable lack of success. There were those inside the ABA offices who saw the light, but their leadership refused to budge on the key issue of the lawsuit.

All that marble and a 12 story atrium made for a great echo chamber and from the time ADAPT entered the building to the end of the action we chanted our message to echo through the brains of those in the plush offices above. As the day wore on new chants were born like "ADAPT fought the battle of ABA, ABA, ADAPT fought the battle of ABA, and the walls came tumbling down" (to the tune of Jerico) and oldies but goodies like "We Will Ride" were pulled back into service.

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[Image caption] Photo by Carolyn Long

Around 4:00 the word came down that the ABA folks had once again refused to budge. The anger mounted. The folks here were the ones who had been waiting for Greyhound to comply with the ADA, had tried the test rides, had been manhandled when boarding, had been refused rides, and more. We were not going to stand idly by while they snatched justice from our hands. On signal everyone headed for the elevators and blocked their access, just as ABA was blocking ours.

The police came marching in pulling on their latex, no-cootie arrest gloves. ADAPT held firm. Then the police pulled the emergency alarm, and evacuated the building. Knowing we were the emergency, we de-dined to leave, and lo and behold the ABA finally agreed to negotiate, committing in a letter that the ABA President and CEO along with their Chairman of the Board of Directors would meet with ADAPT by mid-December to discuss their pending legislation and the DOT regs.

Three splendid days of actions, and victories from each. That night we celebrated a job well done, and looked to the spring when we will again be joining forces in DC... to set our people free!

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[Image caption] Photo by Erik von Schmitterling

[Subheading] ADAPT meets with Senator
by Erik T. von Schmetterling, MD

On Tuesday, November 3rd, while most of our troops were so diligently present-ing ADAPT's position on REAL CHOICES to the Department of Health and Human Services (INNS), a small contingent of ADAPTers broke away to attend a meeting with US Senator Rockefeller, from West Virginia. National ADAPT was represented by Cassie James, Jimmi Shrode and Erik von Schmetterling all of Philadelphia, and Zen Thorton from Atlanta, GA. Local representatives of West Virginia ADAPT were also there, including Ken Ervin.

Upon our arrival, the Senator's staff listened with interest to us tell about MiCASA. Finally, around 3:30 p.m., the Senator himself appeared. Originally promising us about twenty minutes of his busy time, he ended up giving us an hour and a half, during which he seemed fascinated by MiCASA and its principles.

Senator Rockefeller is definitely a strong hopeful when it comes time to offer MiCASA in the Senate. The meeting ended up on a productive note, with the local West Virginians promising to follow through on more work with the Senator.